After Vietnam

Novelist Larry Heinemann Takes A Comic Detour In `Cooler By The Lake`

``Paco`s Story,`` won him a 1987 National Book Award), Larry Heinemann felt that he and his readers could use a little comic relief.

``I don`t know about anybody else, but I was ready for a good laugh,`` he said. ``And I wanted to see if I could write a funny book, one that wasn`t about Vietnam and in which nobody died.``

Because humor is such a highly personal and quirky commodity, Heinemann can`t be sure he`s written a funny book. But he thinks he`s delivered the goods in ``Cooler by the Lake`` (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

``It was great fun to write,`` Heinemann said of his newly published novel, which, he said, ``contains every Chicago gag I know. There are a couple I left out, but I heard them too late.``

Among the missing gags, said Heinemann, who was born in Chicago in 1944, is the ``Great Chicago River Foulup. If it had happened six months ago, it would certainly be in the book.`` (In that vein, ``Cooler by the Lake`` does contain a joke about a dead fish, but like many of those in the novel, it`s not repeatable here.)

Most of the Heinemann`s jests come at the expense of his central character, Maximilian Nutmeg, a deadbeat resident of the Ravenswood area, and his various relatives and in-laws; from his hopelessly cheerful but obedient wife, Muriel; to his niece, Amaryllis, the youngest, bustiest and ugliest daughter of his promiscuous sister, Belle-Noche.

In the process of trying to earn a dishonest buck, panhandling in the Loop with an empty gas can, Nutmeg finds a billfold with eight $100 bills. The discovery sets him off in a tow truck (borrowed from Amaryllis` latest love interest, Easy Ed Fitchett) to the wilds of suburban Northfield and back, a farcical journey that concludes with a showdown in the corner bistro, Deadwood Dave`s Wild West Saloon.

Obviously, ``Cooler by the Lake`` is not a subtle comedy of manners, but a lowdown Chicago-style farce, broader than Soldier Field. With its wacky names (Elmo Dudycz, Tangier Middlekauff, Loretta Spokeshave and Oscar Wendella) and its burlesque tone, the book may remind readers (older ones, at least) of S.J. Perelman.

``Don`t tell anybody, but I`ve never read anything by Perelman,`` said Heinemann. But he had seen the movies Perelman wrote for the Marx Brothers, who used to try out their comedy routines on the stage before they were filmed.

Borrowing that technique, Heinemann said he would read sections of his book to family members, neighbors and friends for their reaction, then follow the Marxist principle: ``If it gets a laugh, leave it in. Regardless if it has anything to do with the story.``

For comic inspiration, Heinemann said he drew upon the work of Mark Twain. He also read, ``over and over again,`` two ``screamingly funny``

Besides the more fanciful elements, Heinemann incorporated into his rambling story some of the great snafus in Chicago history. Among them is the infamous 1959 incident in which the fire commissioner blew civil defense sirens to celebrate the White Sox pennant, leading many Chicagoans to believe they were under nuclear attack.

Heinemann even recycled one of his own real foibles, when he drove a CTA bus, shortly after returning from Army duty in Vietnam. As Heinemann did, Maximilian Nutmeg winds up in a traffic jam near Grant Park during the riots at the 1968 Democratic convention.

Drafted in 1966, Heinemann used his experiences as a combat infantryman as the foundation for his first novel, ``Close Quarters,`` published in 1977. A decade later, ``Paco`s Story,`` which follows a scarred veteran`s return from Vietnam, brought him not only the National Book Award but a Carl Sandburg Award and other literary honors.

Despite his comic detour in ``Cooler by the Lake,`` Heinemann hasn`t put Vietnam behind him. On Sunday, Heinemann leaves with his wife, Edie, on a three-week trip to Vietnam, where he plans to gather material for another book based on a railroad journey from Hanoi to Saigon.

``For a lot of people in the United States, Vietnam is an `event,` `` he said. ``I want to tell them that Vietnam is a culture that goes back a couple of thousand years, that it`s all of these people, and that we have no reason to despise or resent or ignore them.``

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Larry Heinemann will read from ``Cooler by the Lake`` at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Kroch`s and Brentano`s Oak Park Store, 1028 Lake St. He will also appear at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, 1330 Ridge Ave., at a program sponsored by the Evanston Library Friends. For information, call 708-869-4582.